**Blob Floor Lamp** 2015 24" x 18" x 1/2" acrylic, LED, aluminum.

Tell us a little about yourself. Where are you based now and what have you been up to lately? I know you just wrapped an installation at the Supreme store in San Francisco. How was that?

Currently I am living and working in Indiana—in a northwest suburb of Indianapolis. I have a studio set up in my garage and basement that I can do pretty decent sized work in. I also use it for my custom fabrication/woodworking business—making sculpture/ furniture/woodwork etc. for clients.

I guess you might call what I do multi-media. I primarily do my own work, but I have also collaborated with many artists over the years - the artist group SIMPARCH Steve Badgett and Matt Lynch, Academy Records (Stephen Lacy), Nathaniel Russell and Future Retrieval (Katie Parker and Guy Michael Davis) and, I have a background as a museum preparator (art installation).

**Elevated Skate Bowl** - Supreme, Brooklyn

Yes, Supreme has been working with SIMPARCH since the first LA store opened in 2004; where we did the first store skate bowl for them. Another in NY in 2017 and SF in 2019. The SF bowl was larger and more technically demanding from a fabrication and installation standpoint as we had integrated large steel components embedded in the framing and tied into the perimeter walls to be able to remove posts that hold up the decking. The SF bowl has minimal posts—reduced to two. Also the flooring on the decking was engineered with sandwiched layers of rubber and felt between plywood to help reduce noise below. All in all the project went great on our end because we had a great team building and installing.

**Recreational Vehicle** 2002 15' x 7' x 5' styrofoam. Life-size carving of a 1970 Monte Carlo SS out of styrofoam. This piece was installed in many events, sites and locations across the U.S.

Your work spans a pretty crazy number of mediums. With something like “Recreational Vehicle” where you’re working with a material as brittle as styrofoam, do you start small and experiment? Or do you dive in and figure it out as you go?

Ha, yes. I would describe that as a result of working with idea-based artwork. Basically, I enjoy the challenge of coming up with something new and then figuring out how to do it. That ‘figuring out’ process is rewarding for me. With a lot of my projects there is experimentation to find out how to manipulate the materials (cutting, glueing etc.)

On something like the ‘Recreational Vehicle’, I did make a small 3’ long version. Experimenting with the foam to find out how to carve the shapes and glue laminate blocks together. Then tested those in water to see how they were effected (I was planning to float the car in Lake Washington). After I tested it in water I realized it wasn’t waterproof - and was becoming waterlogged/heavy, so then had to look into what kind of material I could seal and coat styrofoam with. That path of figuring out feasibility like how (and when) to make a piece is generally how I work. I experiment, and figure it out as I go.

**Mountainous Blurb** 2015 acrylic, LED, aluminum 24" x 24" x 3/4"

When did you try your hand at woodworking and sculpture? What about working with neon? Do you have some traditional training, or are you self- taught?

I started using wood in sculpture around ‘93. I had a great teacher Kenton Hall at Ball State who was an accomplished sculptor, woodworker, and furniture maker—he encouraged my interests in trying to learn basic furniture making techniques.

Later on, I just developed these skills through new projects. On that level I would say I’m self taught in pursuing projects that challenge me technically. That translates to different mediums like LED neon, ceramics, or video work.

Regarding the neon piece—I happened to be living around the corner from a neon shop in Cincinnati at the time. I often wondered if I was to use neon—what kind of sculpture would it be? The idea for the shop light came, and I asked the shop how it could be made. They basically didn’t want to make it because it was too fragile - as it is actually one large tube, not two as it appears. I asked them if I could make the shape and have them guide me - it ended up working out.

The metal box that holds the light—I had a local sheet metal company make the shell to my specs—then assembled the parts. A lot of weird little connectors and mounts inside the shell to keep the neon stable. It is an odd piece when shown in a gallery setting because it really blends in wherever it’s at. Its only until you get closer that you realize there was some other intention.

**2 x 12** 2011 8' x 4' x 10 1/4" pine, pine veneer, upc code

A lot of your work plays with perspective in a really interesting way (I'm thinking of 2 x 12 specifically). What draws you to trying to shift the way we perceive everyday objects?

There’s a certain amount of humor that drives my work. Generally, if I the idea makes me laugh, I will go for it. It could be in the perceived labor involved in the piece, or in the material transformation or presentation. Something about imagining the functionality or bizarre hyper-functionality of basic objects fitting into our world, how they’re over-equipped for usability kind of lends itself to inherent wackiness. When the form is subverted, new perspectives into content come up. Ultimately, I try to make work like the kind of work that I enjoy—something that creates a sense of wonder or joy for the viewer.

How did you and Nathaniel Russell meet? I heard you made a record together at one point. What was that like? What made you decide to collaborate?

Nat and I met in college in 1996. We met at a house party he was having. I remember coming into the house and noticing that he was playing Sebadoh on the stereo. We instantly started talking music, and both being artists, talking art stuff. Shortly there after, we started going to see shows in nearby towns like Bloomington and Cincinnati.

We also started playing music together then too. We played improvised long-form spacey jams; just bass and guitar—eventually we added a person who could play guitar pretty well and I switched to drums. That was the most cohesive period of our musical endeavors to then. We called ourselves Robot Rainbow—a name inspired by an instrumental Sea and Cake song. Soon after I went to grad school in Seattle for sculpture, and Nat moved to SF and started Birds of America.

We played sporadically here and there after we both moved back to the midwest; whenever we could get together. Recently there was an opportunity to press a 7” of one of our earlier tunes from the late 00s era — a limited-edition run of 100 lathe-cut copies—Japanese press through a gallery we have both shown at called Beach Gallery in Tokyo.

I saw you share a Guided by Voices album the other day. Do you listen to music while you’re working? Who have you been listening to lately?

Music. Yes. Absolutely essential. I have to have music on everywhere. I’m constantly searching for new tunes. Specifically ones that soothe the soul - in whichever way. Recently it’s mostly mellow and groove related. Jeff Parker, Tommy Guererro, Floating Points, mid-period Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk, Tim Hecker, J Dilla, Can, Neu!, Kevin Drumm—I dunno. These are all recent. Tons of stuff.

Where do you find inspiration for your work? Was there anyone in particular who helped inform your approach?

Early on Allan Kaprow kind of opened the realm of possibilities for me, conceptually anyway. My background in the building trades informs some of the work, like how things are made, who are they for, trends etc. I have a bit of skepticism about that world (that I typically find work in) and it comes through in the work. Other artists such as Roman Signer, Mark Tansey, James Wines (founder of SITE), Ken Price and Richard Wilson all have had my admiration at one time or another.

What's something you've read, or watched, or listened to, that's really stuck with you?

There’s this short story by Donald Barthleme called ‘The Balloon’ from the ’70’s that describes this event of a balloon as public art piece unleashed in Manhattan. Barthleme’s background in art writing and curating helps bring all these issues of foisting public art into the public realm. It just sticks with me for its depth of perspective on odd details about how the balloon was made, and its finish, and skillful installation. Such a strange and unique bit of writing that really flows through the imagination.

What's a dream project you would love to work on at some point?

I came up with an idea for this public art sculpture back in in 2014 before Trump was around. The piece is based on these large statuesque men called ‘muffler men’—they are occasionally seen outside a muffler shop or tire repair place. There are a few different versions of these things floating around out there. The idea was one of these muffler men guys with his face staring down permanently into his phone.

At night the glow of the phone would illuminate his face. But strangely it was prescient in its form, and has now it is maybe too accurate in describing a certain genre of people. I could see it causing trite unnecessary public problems.

Although it has changed from my original idea, through the recent course of political evolution (or de-evolution however you look at it) I think it would still work as a piece of public art. Someday. Perhaps with a grant or something.

The stop motion video of the chair you titled "doing / undoing" is really awesome. Would you like to do more with video at some point? What's next for you?

Thank you! I’m glad you enjoyed it. Yes, I actually have a few more video pieces in the works. The chair was the first—and there are 3 more chairs in the set. So, those are what I’m working on, along with painting. Painting is always kind of going on in the background.

Anything else you've been thinking about lately or want to share?

I hope our voting machines work correctly in November!

In the Studio with Chris Vorhees

In the Studio with Laura Berger

On the Road with Kevin Morby